Broadband checker information and data

The request was refused by Office of Communications.

Giuseppe Sollazzo

Dear Office of Communications,

your broadband checker website located at https://checker.ofcom.org.uk/broadband-c... provides address-level information about broadband availability and speeds.
Upon entering a postcode, the user can choose a specific address, and the best available Internet broadband connection speed for that address - regardless of ISP - is provided.

I would like to request:
1) when the checker has been last updated, i.e. what is the timeliness of the current data
2) if the data underlying the checker is update with regularity, and what is the frequency of update
3) which providers feed data into the checker, and how frequently
4) access to the address-level data (not the aggregate data you provide on the website) in bulk, by whatever means you suggest (a file download, an API, etc)

Yours faithfully,
Giuseppe Sollazzo

Jerin John, Office of Communications

Reference: 01109775
01/02/2021 13:56
Riverside House
2a Southwark Bridge Road
London SE1 9HA

 
Jerin John
Information Requests

Freedom of Information request

Dear Giuseppe Sollazzo,

Thank you for your request for information about Broadband checker data. Your
request was received on 01/02/2021.

Where we hold the information you have requested we will endeavour to answer
your request in full and within 20 Working Days.

If we are unable to provide the information requested, we will explain why the
information has not been provided.

If you have any queries then please
contact [1][Ofcom request email].
Please remember to quote the reference number above in any future
communications.

Yours sincerely,
Jerin John
 
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Our mailing address is:
[5][Ofcom request email]

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References

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Information Requests, Office of Communications

7 Attachments

Classification: CONFIDENTIAL

Dear Mr Sollazzo,

 

Please find attached our response to your request for information.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Information Requests

:: Ofcom
   Riverside House
   2a Southwark Bridge Road
   London SE1 9HA
   [1]www.ofcom.org.uk

:: Keep up with Ofcom on social media

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[7]:: Stay connected during the coronavirus
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Giuseppe Sollazzo

Dear Jerin,
many thanks for your reply to my questions 1-3.

I would like you to review your response to question 4, which you rejected citing section 393(1) of the Communications Act 2003.

Section 393 is meant to protect data that is not already available to the public, which is what a "disclosure" would do. In this case the data is already available, despite not in bulk. My request is not about new data being made publicly available, the data is already available in full, albeit one record at a time. My question is about re-release exactly the same data in a more comprehensive form, and therefore this request does not constitute a "disclosure". As such, section 393(1) of the Communications Act 2003 cannot apply.

I look forward to receiving your reviewed response.

Yours sincerely,

Giuseppe Sollazzo

Information Requests, Office of Communications

Dear Mr Sollazzo,

Thank you for your request for an internal review. We will be in touch with a response in due course.

Kind regards
Internal Reviews
:: Internal Reviews
Information Requests
:: Ofcom
Riverside House
2A Southwark Bridge Road
London SE1 9HA
www.ofcom.org.uk
:: Keep up with Ofcom on social media

:: Stay connected during the coronavirus

show quoted sections

Information Requests, Office of Communications

Dear Mr Sollazzo,

Apologies, there has been a delay in providing you with a response to your request for an internal review. We are working to get this to you as soon as possible and I will be in touch should there be any further delays.

Kind regards,
Internal Reviews

:: Internal Reviews
Information Requests
:: Ofcom
Riverside House
2A Southwark Bridge Road
London SE1 9HA
www.ofcom.org.uk
:: Keep up with Ofcom on social media

:: Stay connected during the coronavirus

show quoted sections

Information Requests, Office of Communications

7 Attachments

Dear Mr Solazzo,

 

Please see the attached response to your request for an internal review.

 

Kind regards

Internal Reviews

:: Internal Reviews
   Information Requests

:: Ofcom
    Riverside House
    2A Southwark Bridge Road
    London SE1 9HA
    [1]www.ofcom.org.uk

:: Keep up with Ofcom on social media

   [2][IMG]   [3][IMG]   [4][IMG]   [5][IMG]   [6][IMG]

[7]:: Stay connected during the coronavirus
[8][IMG]

 

 

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Mark Salter left an annotation ()

Hi Giuseppe.

I have written some code to download the data from each valid postcode from the site.

It is running now and I will happily upload the file to share. This file is likely to be large of course and it might take some time to gather and later upload!

May I check if you are after each address in every postcode or that one data item per postcode is enough?

Is JSON format acceptable? An example of the first few entries being :-

{"OFCOMbroadbandCoverageFirstEntryPerAvailablePostcode":
{"broadbandCoverage":{"uprn":9051082459,"addressShortDescription":"MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS, CASTLE STREET","postCode":"AB101AH","maxBbPredictedDown":17,"maxBbPredictedUp":1,"maxSfbbPredictedDown":-1,"maxSfbbPredictedUp":-1,"maxUfbbPredictedDown":-1,"maxUfbbPredictedUp":-1,"maxPredictedDown":17,"maxPredictedUp":1},"usoEligibility":false,"providers":[]}
{"broadbandCoverage":{"uprn":9051121803,"addressShortDescription":"6, SHOE LANE","postCode":"AB101AL","maxBbPredictedDown":14,"maxBbPredictedUp":1,"maxSfbbPredictedDown":80,"maxSfbbPredictedUp":20,"maxUfbbPredictedDown":-1,"maxUfbbPredictedUp":-1,"maxPredictedDown":80,"maxPredictedUp":20},"usoEligibility":false,"providers":[]}
{"broadbandCoverage":{"uprn":9051081938,"addressShortDescription":"CARETAKER\u0027S HOUSE NORTH CHURCH OF ST ANDREW, 79, QUEEN STREET","postCode":"AB101AN","maxBbPredictedDown":15,"maxBbPredictedUp":1,"maxSfbbPredictedDown":80,"maxSfbbPredictedUp":20,"maxUfbbPredictedDown":-1,"maxUfbbPredictedUp":-1,"maxPredictedDown":80,"maxPredictedUp":20},"usoEligibility":false,"providers":[]}
}

Please note, this is data that Ofcom are publishing and that I am retrieving through their servers and unless they or their provider throttles or blocks me I will leave it running to completion for all of the 2.6M postcodes in the UK - that Ofcom hold data for.

May I also just ask what use you intend to make of this data and seek your assurances that it is a non-commercial use please?

Giuseppe Sollazzo left an annotation ()

Hi Mark,
thanks for your comment.

However, my request is aiming to try and get a data release through the official channels, so what you're suggesting won't work for my use case. In any case, be sure to check that what you're aiming to do is not breaching existing legislation or the website's T&Cs

Mark Salter left an annotation ()

Ok, thanks for letting me know.

I don't see anything prohibiting me using the forms multiple times, so will let it complete, but understand you cannot use.

best regards,
Mark